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US education secretary pushes for higher cigarette tax to boost early education

U.S. education secretary says it will boost early education

By Milan Simonich

msimonich@tnmnp.com

@MilansNMreport on Twitter

Posted:
09/09/2013 07:11:31 PM MDT

SANTA FE >> U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan rode a brightly painted bus into New Mexico on Monday, then gave a gloomy overview of state schools.

New Mexico begins each school year with about 30,000 students in ninth grade. But only about 20,000 of them graduate from high school in four years, Duncan said during a town hall meeting.

He said the problems of failing students and dropouts begin long before high school. That is why the Obama administration wants to spend more than $75 billion to expand prekindergarten education, Duncan told a room jammed with more than 150 supporters of the idea.

Under President Obama's plan, much of the money to expand early childhood education would come from a federal tax increase of 94 cents a pack on cigarettes. States that wanted to tap into the national account would voluntarily join the program and then contribute a portion of the cost for expanding early childhood education.

In New Mexico, about 17,000 kids now are without access to pre-kindergarten programs. Including them would be the key building block for success in school at every level, Duncan said.

"This is the best investment we could make in our babies," he said.

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New Mexico legislators for the past two years have been debating whether voters should get the chance to pour more state money into early childhood education.

A bill that would allocate $110 million a year to education programs for infants and children up to 5 years old cleared the state House of Representatives last winter, but then died in the Senate. Funding would have come from the state's $11 billion land-grant endowment.

Gov. Susana Martinez opposes taking more money from the endowment for early childhood programs. But supporters of the proposed constitutional amendment have focused their displeasure on state Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, who refused to give the bill a hearing in his Senate Finance Committee. Smith's decision killed the bill without a vote.

Smith said in previous interviews that he derailed the bill because he considered it financially irresponsible, and he did not want his committee members subjected to criticism for any votes they may have cast on it.

Proponents of the early childhood program plan to try again in the 30-day legislative session starting in January. If the bill for a constitutional amendment clears the Legislature, Martinez could not veto it. The measure would go on the 2014 ballot for a vote of the people.

Duncan said he was unfamiliar with the New Mexico proposal. His goal is to build support for the federal initiative to fund more early childhood programs.

Duncan called this "an uphill battle so far," but said it should have bipartisan support.

He said the initiative would double the number of kids in pre-kindergarten programs nationally, from 1.1 million to 2.2 million.

The pre-kindergarten education proposal is the main reason that Duncan and his staff are on their back-to-school bus tour of New Mexico, El Paso, Arizona and Southern California. Their campaign for more early childhood education funding is called Strong Start, Bright Future.

Rick Geraci, commandant of cadets at the New Mexico Military Institute, was among the people who joined Duncan in publicly backing the initiative.

Geraci said improving early childhood education would improve national security. As it stands, he said, many young people who want to join a branch of the military are denied because they are poorly educated, they have a criminal record or they are overweight.

He said extra emphasis on early childhood education would keep more kids out of jail and enable them to serve their country in the military.

Also supporting the initiative was Sterling Speirn, CEO and president of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

Speirn said research had taught us that a child's chances of success in life multiply if he or she begins the right type of education in the first three years of life.

Those kids unable to be in early childhood education programs may be four years behind their peer group when they reach third grade, he said.

Duncan agreed. "We have to get out of the catch-up business," he said.

Duncan said the initiative that President Obama envisions would not duplicate or compete with Head Start programs.

He said he hoped to sell the need for early childhood education by telling taxpayers it is not an expense, but an investment. He said he hoped that a bipartisan bill for early childhood education would be introduced in Congress this fall.

His sales pitch to lawmakers will be the same as the one he will make in New Mexico and West Texas: Money spent to help small children launch successful lives will mean fewer lawbreakers, more graduates and more success stories, Duncan said.

Milan Simonich, Santa Fe Bureau chief of Texas-New Mexico Newspapers, can be reached at (505) 820-6898. His blog is at nmcapitolreport.com.

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